Mississippi Legislature considering improvements to its medical cannabis program 

There are bright hopes for the Mississippi Legislature to reform medical cannabis policies in 2026. 

The state implemented a comprehensive medical cannabis program in 2023, and over 67,000 patients are now participating.

While several bills died in February 2026 as they failed to advance by legislative deadlines, a few medical cannabis bills are still alive and have crossed from one chamber to the other.

•  HB 895 would extend the validity of recommendations and state issued medical cannabis IDs from one year to two years (unless otherwise decided by the recommending practitioner). As amended, it also removes the THC cap on tinctures, oils and concentrates. The bill passed the House 98-11. 
• HB1152 would allow the State Health Officer to approve patients to participate in the program if they don’t have a listed qualifying condition and if the officer feels that all other conventional medicines failed to achieve their goals with a patient. That bill passed the House 84-11.
• HB1034, Mississippi's "Ryan's law", which would allow the use of medical cannabis by terminally ill patients in hospitals, passed in the House in a 117-1 vote and will move to the Senate. The legislation prohibits smoking and vaporization of medical cannabis in those medical facilities. While the bill is well intentioned, it unfortunately is more restrictive than current protections in place. Efforts are underway to resolve these issues with the bill. 

Criminal justice-related cannabis bills — including strengthening Mississippi’s limited decriminalization law, decriminalizing paraphernalia, cannabis legalization, and expungement — all died, most without receiving a committee hearing. To move broader reform, it is crucial your legislators hear from you that ending cannabis prohibition should be a priority moving forward.

Meanwhile, multiple pieces of legislation to restore the voter initiative process — which is the only reason Mississippi has a medical cannabis law — died again this year. The right to the ballot initiative process is guaranteed in the state Constitution. Legislators took an oath to uphold the state Constitution and are failing to live up to the mandate the Constitution contains for this process.

The road to Mississippi becoming the 37th medical cannabis state

On February 2, 2022, Gov. Tate Reeves (R) signed into law the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act (SB 2095), sponsored by Sen. Kevin Blackwell, to restore voters’ will by creating a medical cannabis program.

Both chambers passed the bill by veto-proof margins in one of the largest vote margins in history. A summary of the law can be found here.

On November 3, 2020, 69% of Mississippi voters cast their ballots in favor of enacting a medical cannabis program. On that same ballot, 74% voted for a broad program — Initiative 65 — while rejecting a far more restrictive alternative lawmakers had placed on the ballot, Initiative 65A. Subsequently, the state Supreme Court found that the state’s signature requirements for ballot measures could not be complied with and threw out not only Initiative 65, but also the entire state’s ballot initiative process.

SB 2095 reflected an attempt to create a middle ground between the extremely restrictive approach some legislators and the governor favor and voters’ strong preference for a broad measure. The first medical cannabis sales began less than a year after it was signed into law, in January 2023.

Stay tuned for more developments, and click here to sign up for Mississippi-specific email updates from MPP.

Did you know Mississippi is a “decrim” state?

Mississippi is one of the 31 states that have decriminalized — or, in 24 of those cases, legalized — personal-use cannabis possession. First offense possession of 30 grams (a little more than an ounce) is punishable by a $250 fine instead of jail time and a civil summons as opposed to arrest, as long as the offender provides proof of identity and a written promise to appear in court. However, Mississippi’s cannabis law has a gaping loophole: possession of paraphernalia — such as the baggie cannabis is in — remains a criminal offense punishable by up to six months.

Meanwhile, data indicates that Mississippi’s cannabis laws are not being evenly enforced. A recent study by the American Civil Liberties Union found that although Black and white individuals use cannabis at nearly identical rates, Black Mississippians are 2.7 times more likely than whites to be arrested for cannabis possession.

Please write your state legislators to ask them to end cannabis prohibition in Mississippi and replace it with a taxed and regulated system, as 24 other states have done.

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